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Luca Brasi
Luca Brasi was one of Vito Corleone's most trusted soldatis. He was portrayed by Lenny Montana. Biography Luca Brasi was a feared enforcer for the Corleone Family, known as one of the most dangeorus men in the eastern underworld. Fluent in Italian and able to handle himself in any fight, he has a dark reputation among the underworld as a savage killer. Many years before, Brasi impregnated a young Irish prostitute and later murdered her, but did not stop there; on the day of his daughter's birth, he forced the midwife, Filomena under pain of death, to hurl his own daughter into a furnace, an act for which she never forgave herself, describing him as an unholy demon that night. After that night, Brasi killed the young girl and allowed himself to be arrested. He was rescued from prison by Vito Corleone, who saw Brasi as a potential asset. The tales of Brasi's prowess soon became legend. At Connie's wedding, Michael Corleone explains to his then girlfriend Kay Adams, the story of how Don Corleone helped his godson Johnny Fontane. Michael explains that his father went to convince bandleader Les Halley to release Johnny from a personal service contract that was holding back Johnny's singing career. After refusing an offer of $10,000 Don Corleone returned the next day with Luca Brasi and within an hour the bandleader signed a release for a second offer of only $1,000. Luca Brasi had held a gun to the bandleader's head while Don Corleone assured him that either his brains or his signature would be on the release contract. Brasi gave a large sum for Connie's bridal purse directly to Vito, who asked him to seek out Aldo Trapani, the son of former enforcer Johnny Trapani, who had fallen in with a bad crowd. Brasi helped the youth eliminate his former gangmembers and took him under his wing, teaching him the art of extortion by taking back Emilio Brunetti's butcher shop from the Tattaglia Family. The two of them then also shook down barber Dino DeMantagna for a sizeable fee. Shortly before Vito Corleone is shot, Brasi was summoned by the Don, who intends to draw out rival mobster Virgil Sollozzo and the rest of the Don's enemies by having Luca pretend he had switched allegiances. Luca drove to The Luna Bar with Trapani, wearing a bulletproof vest. Sollozzo, after promises of friendship and a job offer, rams a knife into Luca's hand, pinning it to the bar as an assassin garrottes him from behind. A Sicilian message is later sent to the Corleone family: a fish wrapped in Brasi's flak jacket. The meaning is made clear to the Corleones: "Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes." Brasi's role as personal enforcer/bodyguard to the Don was later filled by Al Neri. Tom Hagen once said to Michael following the completion of Neri's training, "Well, now you've got your Luca." Luca's Legend One such incident involved Brasi killing off two of Al Capone's henchmen (one of whome was Willy Russo, brother of the future Don of Chicago, Louie Russo) hired to kill Don Corleone. Brasi subdued both of them and tied and gagged them with towels stuffed in their mouths. He then leisurly hacked one of them to pieces with a fireaxe. When he went to finish off the other one, he found that the man had gone through a shock convulsion and choked to death on the towel. Brasi's talent, it was said, was that he could do a job, or murder all by himself, without confederates, which made a criminal conviction almost impossible. He is also known for killing, in two weeks, six men who attempted to kill Don Corleone. These six deaths ended the famous "Olive Oil War". His almost fanatical loyalty to Don Corleone was unquestioned, and was said to have killed a Corleone soldier just for making the Corleone family look bad. Category: Corleones Category: Enforcers